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Press, Volume LVI, Issue 16959, 7 October 1920, Page 6

We are sorry that the House of Representatives decided to make the higher salaries of Ministers and members of the Legislature date from April, Ist last. This means a bonus to legis-| lators amounting to over £10,000. This] is not, comparatively, a great sum, but \ legislators, even if entitled to higher] pay, are not entitled to presents of j about £100 apiece. The public will not care for this voting of bonuses, but it will certainly approve of the sugges-, tion, which was supported, by the j Leader of the Opposition, that the' Prime Minister's salary should be £2500. That is by no meanß too large J a salary for a post so onerous and im-: portant, and we are sorry that Mr Masscy vetoed the proposal. The House could hardly disregard his preference for the lower salary (£2000) in the Bill, but his personal wishes ought nob to have weighed against the consideration that the position of Prime Minister should be adequately endowed, which

we think most people will agree it is not, at £2COO a" year. He is, as a general rule, a foolish man who interferes in tlio quarrels of other people, and only a very keen desiro that in the interests of the enterprise, the division that has come between Mr H. G. Ell and the committee and. members of the Summit Road Association shall bo healed, compels us to refer to the matter at all. Everybody in Christohureh knows that the community owes the Summit road to Mr EH's indefatigable advocacy and work, carried on often in the fare of indifference, if not discouragement. The committee of the Association endorses public opinion in this respect to the utmost, and in this issue the chairman of the Association makes full and generous acknowledgment of all that Mr Ell has done. But having joined in the woiic at Mr Ell's own request, when ho found it was becoming too big for one man, untiringly energetic though he was, and having shouldered a tolerably heavy burden of financial responsibilities, the committee ask that thoy should be consulted about any proposed new works, and that these should receive their endorsement bc-fore being nut in hand. And this is the point of dispute between the committee and Mr Ell. The latter bavins been so long accustomed to manage the Association's affairs lonehanded —ho practically was the Association for a considerable period—insists still on ploughing his lonely furrow, and. to vary the simile, on piling up liabilities for which the committee regards themselves as responsible. He persists in believing that the committee is strongly biased against him, whorens it is clear from Mr Maehin's very temperate letter, that the belief is absolutely without foundation. AW that the committee asks is that Mr Ell shall act towards it in a businesslike manner, and shall work with it, and not against it. Cannot- Mr Ell, in tho interests of the community for which he has done so much, sink any personal feeling, and throw in his weight with the team whose co-operation he sought?

There can be no ono in the world who in the past two years has envied Mr Lloyd George his position as Prime Minister. During the latter part of the war, and to an even greater exTent in the past year, he carried a giant's burden of care and responsibility, and it has not been lightened by the events of the past few months. Not for the Prime Minister are the delights of holi-day-making in the recess; he has to stay in town and negotiate with the miners in order that, if possible, he may avert the" industrial disaster that menaces the welfare of the country. His tremendous energy and vitality extort the admiration of opponents otherwise unwilling to concede him the slightest virtue or good quality. The Spa Conference, added to the work of the session, left him obviously a, tired, even an exhausted, man, and there were many reports that he was endangering his health by incessant work, and would have to take at least six months' rest. But, as the "Observer" remarked,, if anything could deter him from taking a holiday it would be the imputation that he needs one. "That always seems to act on his temperament like touching a switch to start a dynamo." He took a brief holiday at Lucerne, it is true, but he took the affairs of the country -with him, and since his return has been plunged in a ceaseless round of conferences and negotiations, such as would hare prostrated a man of leas vitality. Probably he enjoys it all. As Mr Massey said the other night, "It gets into one's blood."

We are afraid that it is rather late in the day-' for members of the Progress League to complain about the Government's action in extending the Lake Coleridge electric supply to Timaru before the needs of Christchurch and the immediate district were satisfied. The Timaru scheme, which should certainly have followed, and not preceded, the extension of the supply to Ashburton, has gone too far for such protests to have any effect. The League did quite right in appointing a special committee to go into the question of hydroelectric supply, and suggest a policy. No more important matter awaits adequate consideration by the Government than this question of the proper development of the Dominion's hydro-electric resources, and any time and labour spent in securing information as to how this can best bo carried out will indeed be well spent. The coal shortage, and each succeeding strike in the mines by which the position is made worse, emphasises the necessity of the Government adopting, as soon as possible, a Dominion-wide scheme for utilising the power now running to waste in our rivers, and thus freeing the community very largely from dependence on the whims and vagaries of a section of workers who are simply fighting for their own hand all the time, and display the most callous indifference to the welfare I of the Dominion and the comfort of the general public.